Oh Messy Life #5: Crossing the skincare Rubicon
Plus lunch with Rae, Deanie in Portland, Kate's cat-centric apartment tour, and a Proper Chune from The Postal Service
Welcome to Oh Messy Life, the column that always stays sun safe.
I had just finished lunch with Raeland at New Town Bakery when I decided to cross the skincare Rubicon. I cut west along Pender, past the gift shops and graffiti, to International Village Mall. It was the middle of the day and the streets were bright and dusty. Men in black t-shirts lingered in the shade, muttering to themselves.
I stepped through the sliding glass doors and into the stark white forever of T&T Market. I was looking to perform a radical act of self-care, to recruit a new ally in the war on aging. I was looking to buy a tube of Korean sunscreen.
My search started earlier that day. Sauntering home from the gym. Leg day. Lifting heavy. Glutes fully engaged. Calves absolutely screaming.
I was listening to the latest bleep bloops from A.G. Cook. I was thinking about the weather. Clear skies and sunny. A sudden palate cleanser. Summer as amuse-bouche.
I could feel the sunspots forming already.
With every year, the topography of my face changes a little more. Hairline fractures emerge and deepen; around the corners of my eyes, along the center of my forehead. To the untrained eye, the differences are imperceptible. But I’m an expert in the field; I know my face like the back of my hand. I have studied the blemishes up close in dismay and (eventually) acceptance.
In my AirPods a hyperactive HAL-9000 sang over a Nyan Cat bass line. “Give me your heart! Give me your heartache!”
I want to be an enlightened man. I want to use one sunscreen on my body and another, nicer sunscreen on my face. I want to look great for my age. Sunscreen seems to promise that. But more often than not it makes me feel gross in the present.
And so what is an enlightened man to do?
I unlocked my phone and searched “sunscreen” on PI.FYI.
A rec from
:Beauty of Joseon Sunscreen (SPF 50 PA++++)
Isntree Hyaluronic Acid Sunscreen (SPF 50 PA++++)
Both leave a nice dewy finish, no white cast, and don't sting eyes.
Subsequent Google search: “where to buy Korean skincare in Vancouver”…
Give me your heart! Give me your heartache!
I walk through the turnstile guarding the grocery store entrance and see three large shelves of skincare products dead ahead.
I pull down a blue and white box of Instree Hyaluronic Acid Sunscreen and turn for the checkout.
$31.
I tap my card and exit through the sliding doors.
Outside the sun is cooking the city, exposing everything it tries to hide. I remove the sunscreen from its packaging and squirt some onto my finger. It feels thick and mineral-y against my skin. Impenetrable.
Watching Challengers the other week, I was struck by Josh O’Connor’s wrinkles and laugh lines. At 33 years old, he looked far too old to play a high school tennis phenom. But his imperfections were the perfect foil to Zendaya’s manicured beauty. A point of tension that propelled the plot forward. Had he been any smoother, the movie would have suffered.
These are the things I tell myself.
Oh Messy Life
Taste buds: As I mentioned, on Friday Raeland Mendoza and I met for lunch at New Town Bakery. The restaurant is a fixture of Vancouver’s Chinatown, having existed under various ownership since 1948. When I told Rae I had never been, he offered to guide me through some of the lore. We met at 11 a.m. and got seated right away. Rae tells me that while it’s known for Chinese food and dim sum, NTB is low-key “SWAGAPINO” with it, offering some of the best Filipino food outside of Manila. If you wanna do things *Rae’s way,* here’s our order:
Asado Pork bun, Chicken Deluxe bun (my personal fav), Chicken Mami soup, and a Sweet Custard bun to close. Hong Kong iced coffee to drink.
- went MTV Cribs mode with her two cats, Partner and Ruby, for the Girls And Their Cats YouTube channel. She writes “The fame has already gone to their heads and I’m putting them under a conservatorship.”
Photographer/lawyer Deanie Chen is living that XO Tour Life rn, touring with Lizzy McAlpine. She writes:
Hi from the West Coast! On the second leg of tour with Lizzy right now -- currently writing this in SF after the past two shows in Seattle and Portland. The shows have been beautiful, but as with all tours, I spend the first few dates finding my groove and ways to create more variety in my work throughout the tour. I'm aiming to shoot a lot more on film this run, which is something I'm really looking forward to (brought my new Canon EOS 3 to play with!)
It's also been wonderful exploring the PNW for the first time: tried some amazing seafood in Seattle and visited one of the best bookstores I've ever been to -- Powells in Portland. I picked up and finished The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy, -- which I think is the perfect "amuse-bouche" to my journey of reading War and Peace this year. I also picked up Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis, who authored one of my favorite books of all time, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas. Juggling photography and being an attorney this year has resulted in mental strain that has decreased the amount of reading I've been able to do, and I've forgotten how much books help ground me, especially when I often feel more like a spectator than a participant in my own life.
Happy (belated) birthday to the Dame
! I really hate Kyle Cooke after this week’s Summer House!!!
Powell’s books, photographed by Deanie Chen.
Proper Chune
On Tuesday, Leah and I saw The Postal Service on their first (and perhaps last???) headlining tour. Highlights included Ben Gibbard ripping a pretty good drum solo, the Edmonton Oilers clinching a win mid-concert, and this ever-relaxing Chune.